Read Online Delirious by Suzannah Daniels - Free Book Online

going?”
    Scarlet shrugged her shoulders. “He didn’t say.”
    “That’s weird.”
    “I know it. ” Scarlet paused, sighing as if she were in thought. “Mrs. Hamilton has Isabella. I guess I’ll just go pick her back up since we’re not going shopping now. You want to go eat? We can meet at the Hamiltons’ house. I’ll pick up Isabella, and you can just ride with me from there. Maybe by the time we get through eating, Stone will be home.”
    “ May as well, I guess. Sounds like Stone’s gonna be tied up for a while.” I left with Scarlet, locking the door behind me.
    The afternoon was still warm, even though dark, opaque clouds hung heavy in the sky. I followed Scarlet in her sleek, black, luxury car.
    I had traded my red, compact car in a couple of years ago on a slightly used mid-sized car, but it was nowhere near as nice as Scarlet’s. It didn’t matter much to me, though, because my car still got me everywhere I needed to go.
    When we pulled into the Hamiltons’ driveway, I was surprised to find Stone’s car parked there, along with Dylan’s and Mr. Hamilton’s.
    After we parked, I met Scarlet in the driveway.
    “Maybe they’re finished with whatever they were doing,” Scarlet suggested as she motioned toward their cars.
    “Maybe so.”
    The garage door was open, and I followed Scarlet as she walked through the garage and into the finished basement. She thought Mrs. Hamilton might have Isabella in the downstairs family room, but after we determined they weren’t downstairs, I heard loud, muffled voices coming from the stairway.
     
     
    Stone
     
    I could see Dad’s glowering stare, the same one that I’d seen on his face more times than I cared to remember.
    “Is this true, Stone?” Dylan asked. I shifted my gaze to him, a look of disbelief etched in his features.
    Like everyone else, my mother’s eyes had settled on my face. They were all waiting for an explanation, but I couldn’t give them one. Not now. Not without hurting the people that I loved the most.
    “Damn it, Stone,” my dad thundered, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
    “ Yeah, Dad, I did it! Is that what you’re waiting to hear? I did it!”
    “Shit, Stone, you stole money from the company?” I could hear the disappointment in Dylan’s voice.
    My dad threaded both of his hands through his hair as if he were trying to do something, anything to help him cope with the truth. “What the hell were you thinking? You could seriously steal from your own family?”
    My mother watched the exchange quietly, even she, the one who always buffered the tense situations, had no idea what to say.
    I clenched my jaw. Their reactions hadn’t changed. They always thought the worst of me. Maybe there was no hope. Maybe that was the conclusion that they’d always come to, no matter what I did, no matter how many years had gone by. “I didn’t technically steal it. I borrowed it.”
    “You don’t borrow twenty-five thousand dollars without mentioning it!” my father roared, the veins in his temple bulging. “The last time I checked, I still owned Hamilton Enterprises, not you.” He pointed at me, his eyes wild with anger. “I can’t believe you would steal from your own family!”
    “ If I’d had the intentions of stealing it, I wouldn’t have told Tom to make a journal entry showing that I owed the company that money, would I?”
    “That’s not the point, Stone. You still removed twenty-five thousand dollars from the corporate bank account without consulting u s. What are we supposed to conclude from that?”
    “What did you do with the money?” Dylan asked.
    I stood motionless, returning his stare.
    “ Are you in some kind of trouble?” My mother’s soft voice was a stark contrast to my father’s thundering shouts.
    I wished that I could explain, and I briefly considered it before dismissing the idea.
    “Where’s the money?” my father demanded.
    I looked him